Chapter XVII.—The Cases
of Servants and Other Officials. What Offices a Christian Man May
Hold.

But what shall believing servants or
children291291 This is Oehler’s
reading; Regaltius and Fr. Junius would read “liberti” =
freedmen. I admit that in this instance I prefer their reading; among
other reasons it answers better to “patronis”
="patrons.” do? officials
likewise, when attending on their lords, or patrons, or superiors, when
sacrificing? Well, if any one shall have handed the wine to a
sacrificer, nay, if by any 72single word necessary or belonging to a
sacrifice he shall have aided him, he will be held to be a minister of
idolatry. Mindful of this rule, we can render service even “to
magistrates and powers,” after the example of the patriarchs and
the other forefathers,292292 Majores. Of course the
word may be rendered simply “ancients;” but I have kept the
common meaning “forefathers.” who obeyed idolatrous
kings up to the confine of idolatry. Hence arose, very lately, a
dispute whether a servant of God should take the administration of any
dignity or power, if he be able, whether by some special grace, or by
adroitness, to keep himself intact from every species of idolatry;
after the example that both Joseph and Daniel, clean from idolatry,
administered both dignity and power in the livery and purple of the
prefecture of entire Egypt or Babylonia. And so let us grant that it is
possible for any one to succeed in moving, in whatsoever office, under
the mere name of the office, neither sacrificing nor lending his
authority to sacrifices; not farming out victims; not assigning to
others the care of temples; not looking after their tributes; not
giving spectacles at his own or the public charge, or presiding over
the giving them; making proclamation or edict for no solemnity; not
even taking oaths: moreover (what comes under the head of
power), neither sitting in judgment on any one’s life or
character, for you might bear with his judging about money;
neither condemning nor fore-condemning;293293 “The judge
condemns, the legislator fore-condemns.”—Rigaltius (Oehler.)
binding no one, imprisoning or torturing no one—if it is credible
that all this is possible.

291 This is Oehler’s
reading; Regaltius and Fr. Junius would read “liberti” =
freedmen. I admit that in this instance I prefer their reading; among
other reasons it answers better to “patronis”
="patrons.”

292 Majores. Of course the
word may be rendered simply “ancients;” but I have kept the
common meaning “forefathers.”